Finding an individual health insurance policy is far from being difficult in India. The tough part is the selection of the right health policy. There is a myriad of insurance establishments available in India and many of these firms offer multiple insurance products. In addition to that, an increasing number of companies from life insurance sector are now coming up with their set of health schemes too. This makes the domain of health insurance in India even more competitive. To surpass the customer base of other companies each insurer have come up with lucrative schemes. This puts consumers in utter dilemma about the selection of right health plan. The best way to grab the best individual health plan is know your requirement. You need to determine the right coverage, right sum insured and most crucially the right time when you would actually need it.

Ways of availing an individual health plan

There are chiefly two ways by which you can get hold of a health plan for yourself.

Go the traditional way

Approaching insurance companies and asking for policy quotes has been the conventional way of purchasing a policy for many years. But this process is highly time-consuming. It can easily take over a month to receive policy details and agents will be reluctant in responding to you simply because his commission rate will be less as you are buying a health plan.

Go online

The fastest and easiest way of securing an individual health policy is from online resources. You can use the power of insurance comparison portals to good effects as these websites facilitate policy buyers with a single platform to compare policy quotes and attributes from a wide range of insurance firms and assist customers in selecting the best plan.

Things to keep in mind while buying health plans online

you shouldn’t make the final decision on the basis of premium only. A health plan with lowest premium may not be the best plan for you.
There is no perfect policy for all prospective policy buyers. A particular health plan that looks suitable to you may appear undesirable to someone else. Hence, your chosen health insurance plan must meet your criteria and the requirement of your family.
It is better to select a health policy with maximum renewal age
It is also wiser to go for a separate health policy even if your employer have provided you with one group health policy
One should check out the exclusion part of the policy closely
It is better to be honest when it comes to revealing history of previous illness. If you keep any such fact hidden you may miss out on certain claims or coverages that you deserve.
Finally, it is better to close the deal with a health insurance provider instead of a life insurer.

How does an insurance comparison portal function?

When you land on the designated page of insurance comparison portals to perform comparison of health policies you need to submit your personal details such as name, age, contact number and the likes. Once you have submitted information about yourself you need to determine the tenure and sum insured amount of the health scheme you are looking for.

Superior insurance comparison sites allows for flexibility while comparing policy rates. Buyers can opt for co-pay, add-on covers and riders if they want to. However, these are optional criteria and one can compare health plan quotes without having to opt for them.

Source: GIBL.IN

When you are done with divulging all the required details the insurance comparison portal will offer you multiple individual health insurance plans to choose from. You can compare features of these policies to cherry-pick the best health plan.

Example

Suppose you are 35 years old and need individual health insurance for a sum insured of Rs 5 lakh for a year. You don’t want to opt for co-pay, add-on covers and riders and you have chosen 1 year tenure. There are 18 different policies on offer as per your criteria.

Table 1 – List of health insurance policies in the ascending order of premium

The most effective way to find out the best health scheme from such an abundance of health policies is to arrange plans in ascending order in terms of premium amount and then apply the filtering parameters. Four most vital parameters are applied here to unearth the best health insurance scheme for an individual.

Maximum Renewal Age

This is the most significant criteria for choosing the best health plan. Policies that allow for maximum age for renewability of policies are preferable. The benefit of selecting a health policy with maximum renewal age is you have to seek for a new policy at an advanced age and pay lot higher for premium. Therefore, it is prudent to opt for a plan that you can renew till the maximum age limit or ideally for lifetime.

Duration of waiting period for pre-existing ailments

All health insurers come with a time-bound restrictions when it comes to covering pre-existing ailments. The less the stipulated time period better for the consumers. So, you should look for a health policy that comes with minimum waiting period for pre-existing diseases.

Exclusions

The main purpose behind availing a health policy is to stay covered from the medical expenses. If your medical costs are excluded from the coverage of your chosen policy the whole purpose of buying a health plan would be defeated. This is why you need to keep a close eye on exclusions. If you select a plan that covers your medical costs your claim will not be turned down.

Sub-limits

Most policies come with multiple sub-limits under the overall limit. For an example, there can be a sub-limit for hospital room rent of 1% of sum insured amount. If the coverage amount is Rs. 5 lakh the upper limit for room rent will be Rs. 5,000. If you live in a metro city and choose an eminent hospital for admission this limit might fal short of actual room rent. This is why you should look for a health plan without any sub limit.

Table 2 – List of top 5 health policies as per the major criteria

Here is a list of top 5 health plans after comparing all 18 policies in terms of above-mentioned criteria.

Insurance company

Plan/ product

Premium

Maximum renewable age

Coverage for pre-existing conditions/illness

Special features

L &T Insurance

Medisure Classic

Rs. 5108

Lifetime renewal

After 3 years

Coverage for Maternity and new-born baby

and Ayurvedic treatment are available

Apollo Munich

Easy Health Standard

Rs. 6,227

Lifetime renewal

After 3 years

Coverage for treatments under Ayurveda, Unani, Sidha and Homeopathy.

ICICI Lombard

iHealth Plan : 5 Lacs

Rs. 7,054

Lifetime renewal

After 2 years

No sub limit in the entire sum assured amount

Apollo Munich

Optima Restore

Rs. 7, 404

Lifetime renewal

After 3 years for any pre-existing condition, after 2 years for specific diseases

Organ Donor

coverage and E-opinion are available

Apollo Munich

Easy Health Exclusive

Rs. 7, 466

Lifetime renewal

After 3 years

Organ Donor coverage, New Born Baby , Maternity Expense,

Ayurvedic treatment coverage

The final decision

You can select any plan from the above table as per your criteria and also budget. All 5 plans offer lifelong renewability and most of them impose 3 years waiting period. There is just one plan with 2 years waiting periodalso has no sub-limit in sum assured amount, but that policy doesn’t offer any significant coverage. The premium for almost all policies hover in the range of Rs. 6,000 – Rs. 7,000 except the Medisure Classic health plan offered by L & T Insurance. This plan also provides policy buyers with extensive coverage. On the basis of al criteria, this plan looks best of the lot.

Finally, the best individual health insurance policy should be a perfect combination of low premium, minimum waiting period, maximum renew ability along with wide coverage.

Post navigation

10 thoughts on “Looking for a individual health plan? Go online, compare and save on premium!”

Thanks for such an insightful content! I am 35 years old and I am also looking for an individual health plan in India. In your post, you mentioned about some aspects of a health policy to check before finalizing one. Can you please tell me what other aspects I should consider while choosing a health cover for me?

Hello Supratim, We are happy that you have found our post interesting and useful. Aside from the criteria I mentioned in the blog, you can also keep a close eye on aspects like network of hospital, Room rent Limit, fees for doctor consultation, ICU charges as these aspects are vital and you will definitely need these covers in time of an emergency.

What an excellent read! I am looking for an individual health policy for my wife. While going through various health plans offered by leading insurers in India, I came across a plethora of features that each health cover comes up with. It is really confusing to weigh each plan in terms of all these criteria. Are there any aspects that I can ignore and focus on more crucial features?

Hi Rahul, good to know that you liked our post. Yes, we do understand your problem; there are indeed too many features in a health plan. However, features like daily cash for hospital expense, ambulance expenses, domiciliary hospitalization are not absolutely crucial. So, I opine you can overlook these features.

I have gone through your blog in detail and gained many useful information. However, I have one query. I am looking to avail a health plan for me and my parents; father is 55 years old and my mother is 50 years old. Should I go for a family floater plan or individual health cover?

Hello Suraj, It is pleasing to know that information provided in the blog helpful. As far as your query is concerned, I would suggest you to avail an individual policy for yourself and a floater plan for your parents. Since, the sum insured can be used by all people included in the floater policy your parents are more likely to use up that amount, leaving you exposed to medical expenses in future. Hence, an individual policy will safeguard your health risks.

I stumbled upon your blog when searching about suggestions and advices about health policies available in India. I think your post has covered all aspects pretty well. I had a query and now I think this is the best place to place my question. I am 32 years old and I am already covered with a health plan provided by my employer. Will my corporate health policy suffice in the long run or I should secure another individual plan? Please help!

Hi Nitesh, We are happy that you appreciated our effort. To answer your question, while a group health plan has its own set of advantages like low cost, no medical check-up it is not completely free of downsides. Situations like, you quit your present job or the insurance product itself is terminated by the provider may put you in trouble. If you are going to face situations like these when you are above 45 you will not only have to look for another health plan but you also have to appear for medical test and the policy will be costlier as well. Hence, to be on the safe side you should opt for an individual health cover.

Thanks a lot for sharing such an informative post on health plans. I am a 28 years old single individual and planning to buy a suitable health plan for myself. Please suggest which plan and which insurer would be best for me.

Hello Prabin, Thanks for letting us know your health insurance needs. And, you are more than glad to help you out. Simply share your details with us by filling out a form on https://www.gibl.in/health-insurance/, our specialists will get in touch with you at your convenient time and help you find the perfect health policy for you.